The legend of the Ewok Mechanic
by csThor
Summary: The Skywalkers have been invited to celebrate Midwinter with the Solo Family on Corellia. Just a harmless family signette set in a Legends-AU where there are no Vong, no meddling Sith and no reanimated character corpses making their life difficult. (Luke/Mara Ben, a little bit of Han). Rated T for very mild suggestive dialogue.


_**The legend of the Ewok mechanic**_

 **Dramatis Personae:**

Luke Skywalker  
Mara Jade-Skywalker  
Ben Skywalker

Han Solo

 _ **Universe:**_ thoroughly Legends AU (no Vong, no Sith, no recusciated character corpses and no Disney, either)  
 _ **Timeframe:**_ 28 ABY

 _ **Behareh**_ **Spaceport – Corellia  
aboard private space yacht **_**Jade Sabre**_

"Tell me again," Mara said as she leaned casually against the bulkhead and watched her husband wrestle their eighteen-month old son into the thick winter jacket. "We are on Corellia for Midwinter because …?"

Luke pulled up the zipper to close the jacket and reached for the padded gloves. "Because it's a family holiday?" he asked mock innocently and held out one glove for Ben. The toddler, however, had other ideas and stuffed his little hands into the pockets of his jacket and giggled happily when his father gave him a small scowl. "Ben, Uncle Han and Aunt Leia are waiting for us."

His wife struggled to keep a straight face when her son gave him a grin but kept his hands in the pockets. Luke looked at her pleadingly, but Mara made no attempt to help. Instead she let the smirk drift on her face. "Not good enough, farmboy."

He frowned at her, turned back to his son and arched an eyebrow. "Ben," he said sternly and held open the glove again. "It's cold outside. You don't want to become ill, do you?"

The grin went off the toddler's face and was instantly replaced by a look of incomprehension. "Ill?" he asked curiously.

"Remember when you had sniffles?" Luke inquired gently, adding sniffing sounds and coughs to underscore his point. "When your throat was all raspy and your tummy hurt?"

Ben nodded, his eyes widening slightly.

"Do you want to feel bad again?"

His son shook his head.

Luke held out the glove again and waited for Ben to slide a hand into it, but the toddler simply sat in the chair and looked at him. The Jedi Master put on an encouraging face and nodded at the glove. Ben remained motionless.

Mara gave a low chuckle as she was enjoying the show immensely. But as Luke had said: the Solos were waiting for them and former Minister of State Leia Organa-Solo did not tolerate tardiness even for family celebrations. "Put on the gloves, Ben," she instructed gently. "Remember, Uncle Han makes the pudding you liked so much and if we're late Jaina, Jacen and Anakin won't leave anything for you."

Her son's eyes widened even further and with the speed of a proton torpedo his little hands shot forward so that his father could put on the gloves.

Luke gave a tired sigh and went on dressing the toddler. "The old food trick. Now why didn't I think of that?"

"He's a male Skywalker," Mara remarked casually. "Food is always the fastest way to make one of you do something."

Ben let out a squeal of delighted laughter at the pout that appeared on his father's face. "Nice," Luke muttered as he picked up his son.

"Pouting doesn't suit you," she returned snippily. "And I believe you haven't answered my question."

"I haven't?" Luke returned innocently. "I thought I did."

His wife merely looked at him.

"Okay, okay," he relented. "How does _The Coronet Philharmonic Orchestra_ , Jax Merignon and _Antipera_ sound?"

Mara pursed her lips. "Very very nice. But I still get the feeling that there is more to that."

Luke let out another sigh. "You take the fun out of it," he lamented. "Can't get anything past you."

"You couldn't get much past me even before," his wife shot back with another smirk. "Come on, farmboy – spill it."

"Oh alright. It's the bet."

Mara narrowed her eyes. "What bet?"

"The bet between Han and Leia," he returned not phased by the threat that he could see in her jade eyes. Instead a smirk appeared on his lips that conveyed amusement and not a little schadenfreude. "You see Leia bet that Ben would like her Alderaanian holidays better than Han's Corellian ones."

Mara blinked, then she stuck a finger in her ear pretending to clean it. "Something must have affected my hearing. I could have sworn you just said Leia bet Han that our son would like her Alderaanian holidays better than his Corellian ones."

"I did." Luke's eyes twinkled. "And yes, Leia did do that."

His wife, however, seemed to be somewhat vexed. "So let me get this straight," she said just as she was rubbing her temples as if to quell a beginning headache. "Your sister, former Minister of State, youngest member ever to be voted into the Imperial Senate, leader and heroine of the Rebellion, Jedi Knight and mother of the three undoubtedly rowdiest Jedi kids this side of Raxus Prime, bet that our _eighteen-month_ old son would like her incredibly sophisticated, aesthetic and intellectually challenging holidays better than Han's Corellian holidays with all their idealized family idylls, all-you-can-eat festive meals, sweets, chocolate and sweet beverages until you burst?"

He let out a chuckle. "Yes, that's exactly what she did."

For a second Mara shook her head, then she burst out laughing. Leaning heavily against the bulkhead she roared with laughter and it seemed to get more intensive by the second. "Oh farmboy ..." she tried to speak but again laughter choked off whatever she'd attempted to say.

Ben squealed in delight. "Mommy funny," he told his father and giggled when Mara put her hands on her stomach and bent forward trying to ease the strain on those muscles.

Luke chuckled again and kissed Ben's forehead. "Yes, Mommy thinks this is funny." _And so do I._

Mara, meanwhile, had resorted to a Jedi relaxation technique but she was still leaning against the bulkhead and breathing heavily. "Sithspit, Skywalker," she said and wiped the tears from her eyes, "I often wonder if the two of you are really related. And then one of you does something that leaves no doubt at all."

"I told her not to make that bet," he responded meekly and gave her a look of mock innocence. "I guess she knows she's going to lose but she's too stubborn to admit it."

Mara shook her head but her grin never wavered. "And yet she allowed Han to use his skifter in this game. I mean Midwinter on Corellia … Is there any holiday that is more appealing to a small child with a sweet tooth?"

Her husband let out a chuckle. "Oh, she had little choice in this. You see, Han wanted to flip a credcoin but didn't trust her not to cheat."

That drew a snort. "Coming from Han that's a tad rich."

Luke shrugged. "I thought it wise not to bring it up so I played along and got them an Ysalamiri. They tossed the coin and Leia won."

Understanding dawned on Mara's face. "The Festival of Light on New Alderaan," she breathed, earning herself a nod from her husband. "Oh stars, that explains so much."

"It does, doesn't it?" her husband grinned. "Not that I complain. I have very fond memories of that vacation."

"You do, huh?" Her trademark smirk wormed its way on her face. "You think this one will turn out to be just as memorable as the other one?"

"I'm certain," he affirmed and sent her a wave of amorous affection through their bond. "I'll do my very best to make it happen."

"I'll hold you to that, husband mine," Mara retorted huskily and rose onto her toetips to plant a kiss on her son's forehead. "Come on, you two. We better get moving or Leia will have our hides."

Once outside Mara went through the process of locking down the ship while Luke was trying to get his bearings. He'd never landed on this particular spaceport before and despite its relatively small size he found it rather confusing.

"So how are we supposed to make it to their house?" his wife asked as she joined him. "I hope you were not thinking of taking a stroll."

He shook his head. "Han said he's reserved a speeder for us."

"And where exactly?"

"He didn't mention the name," Luke responded with a shrug. "But he also said there is only one rental station on this spaceport. Can you see a sign?"

Mara took a look around, her gaze sweeping the front of the hangars, workshops and administrative buildings framing the duracrete circle of the tarmac but failed to spot any sign that would point to a speeder rental. "No," she finally grumbled. "Would have been nice to know where to go."

"I knew I should have asked for more directions," her husband admitted somewhat contritely. "I don't like the idea of running around and doing a wild Mynock chase."

"We won't," Mara declared and pointed at the main entrance to the passenger lobby. "There's gotta be an information booth. We'll ask them."

Luke nodded his agreement and together they moved towards the transparisteel facade of the lobby. They'd covered half the distance when Ben started squirming in his father's embrace, his little arms reaching out to something off to the right.

"Ewok," he squealed and laughed.

"Ben," Luke admonished gently and adjusted his hold on his son. "We can't go back to the ship for Mister Kettch now. Aunt Leia is expecting us."

His son shook his head, laughing and squealing in delight all the time. " _Ewok_ ," he repeated, again reaching out to something.

Both his parents turned to look in the direction the toddler was gesturing … and froze.

Just as their son had said there was an Ewok. If seeing such a creature away from the Sanctuary Moon of Endor was highly unusual then seeing one on a spaceport was doubly so. But even that was insufficient to describe the stupefaction they felt, because this particular Ewok was unique in his own way.  
Unlike those Luke had met on Endor all those years ago he did not wear the primitive shaggy headgear that the Ewoks on Endor had favored. In fact he wore a jumpsuit, one whose dark grey had given way to a multitude of coloured smears in red, brown, black and green. He stood on a mobile repulsorlift platform used by spaceport maintenance and seemed to be in deep conversation with a human man with raven hair who was gesturing at an open maintenance panel on the top fuselage of what looked like a late-model _Lambda_ -Class Shuttle.

"Must have been the 'shrooms," Mara muttered watching the young man nimbly climbing down a ladder while the Ewok opened what looked like a portable analyzer unit for electrical wiring.

That drew a snort from her husband. "With you it's always the 'shrooms, dear." He shifted his squirming son onto the other arm.

"It's the only explanation for this hallucination," his wife retorted even though it lacked her usual bite. She didn't bother to shield her surprise and disbelief and kept staring at something that simply couldn't be real. "We had nothing else in the pantry that could be the cause. Where did you get them, farmboy?"

"The same stand on the market as always," Luke returned evenly before shaking his head. "Do you think we should …?"

"No." Mara was adamant. "Han would let us never hear the end of it."

He sighed. "You're right. Come on, junior. Let's go to your Aunt and Uncle's."

The turned away from the disturbing image in silent agreement, Ben for once not protesting against being carried away. At that very moment an odd silence blanketed the spaceport – no whining repulsorlifts and honking tarmac vehicles filled the air with their noise – and the toddler used that silence to yell at the top of his little lungs: " _Bye, Ewok!_ "

The creature turned around, saw the madly waving child and waved back.

Luke exchanged a perturbed look with his wife, saw the same expression on her face and hastened his steps towards the passenger lobby. _Some things,_ he decided silently, _are better left alone._

 **[-O-]**

Twenty minutes later Han opened the front door of the house he and Leia had moved into after her retirement from politics. "Nice to see you guys." He held out his arms for his nephew. "Hey junior. How are you?"

Ben hugged his uncle and giggled, "Ewok!"

Mara rolled her eyes as she shrugged out of her jacket but said nothing. Han raised an eyebrow at his brother in law but he merely shrugged before hanging up his own jacket onto a coat hook.

Smirking at his in-laws Han said, "I told you not to let Janson give him that particular present."

Mara huffed in exasperation. "It's not that. There was an Ewok at the spaceport."

"Yeah, sure." The Corellian chuckled. "That urban legend is getting a bit old, you know?"

"What urban legend?" Luke asked curiously. He hadn't heard that before.

"Don't play dumb with me," Han chided them gently and handed Mara her son. "You come here, say something about an Ewok at the spaceport and want to tell me you've never heard the story of the Ewok mechanic?"

The Skywalkers exchanged a glance and shrugged. "No, we don't," Mara answered for them. "Care to elaborate?"

The clatter of plates behind him reminded Han that dinner was about to be served so he decided to tell an abridged version of the tale. "It's an old urban legend started by some spacers about twenty years ago. First they claimed to have seen an Ewok in a jumpsuit at Coronet Central, some even claimed to have heard him speak basic. Later on further details were added, like that he used prosthetics that allowed him to actually fly ships and so on but I figure most of those are the usual exaggerations and embellishments that get added to such stories over time." His lopsided grin appeared on his face. "Wedge's reaction to this tale was interesting, but I guess that's because he's been on the receiving end of Janson's Kettch jokes for a long time."

Luke grinned openly at that. Of course he'd heard the stories of Janson's Ewok pranks.

Han, unaware that his sister-in-law had been told about the ulterior reason for them being on Corellia for Midwinter, decided to start his quest for winning the bet he'd made with his wife. He held out his arms and took his nephew out of the arms of his mother again. "What do you say, kiddo, if I told you a bedtime story tonight, huh?"

The toddler cheered and flung his arms around his uncle's neck.

Han grinned at that. "Okay, buddy. Let's eat dinner and then I'll tell you the story about the 'Legend of the Ewok Mechanic'. How does that sound?"

The small boy cheered again. "Astral!"

Luke shared a smile with his wife. _I have the feeling this holiday is going to be a memorable one,_ he sent her through their bond.

 _I'll hold you to that, husband dear,_ she repeated her words from earlier that day. _I'll hold you to that._

Then they followed the Corellian to the dining room where the Solo family had already assembled.

 **The End ;)**


End file.
